


Adorn

by ladyjax



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: AU, Black beauty shop, Foster Care, Gen, Hair, Kid Fic, Protective Judd Ryder, foster child, hair love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:20:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25818721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyjax/pseuds/ladyjax
Summary: A Saturday ritual takes on new meaning for Judd.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 35





	Adorn

**Author's Note:**

> During the first season, Judd's father asked about grandchildren. I can see Judd and Grace considering fostering and adoption for a variety of reasons. 
> 
> (Dedicated to the women who did my hair for years when I was a kid: Miss Pearl and Miss Josephine, of duBois Hairdressers, Montclair, NJ. )

The beauty shop always felt small to Judd. 

He was a big guy and the shop was always full on a Saturday. But his sometime discomfort had never stopped him from coming to pick Grace up every other week from her hair appointment. He’d been doing it since they’d been dating. It helped that the regulars knew him by and schooled anyone who thought they’d have an opinion about it.

Today’s visit was a little different

Judd looked down at the little girl beside him, whose small brown hand sat trusting in his own. Monae was looking at the sign on the window, her face scrunched as she struggled with the name. 

“du..duBois?” her pronunciation made it sound like “boys”. She gazed up at Judd and he obliged.

“It’s called duBois Charm House.” His mouth sound was fuller than her own. “Sometimes a word or a name doesn’t always sound like it’s spelled.”

‘kay.” One sneakered foot poked at the concrete. “This is where Miss Grace comes to get her hair done?”

Judd nodded. “Sure is. Been coming here for a long time.”

“So why are you bringing me and not her?” 

Judd felt the weight behind her innocent question. None of the previous foster parents had ever tried to understand Monae’s hair and, as Grace explained it, the little girl barely had the skills to try and do anything more than the most rudimentary care. Over the course of their marriage, Judd had received a crash course in the politics of Black women’s hair care and meaning. A lot of it he didn’t fully understand; it was bound up in family, history, and ownership of one’s body and beauty. But he did understand that it meant something to his wife, as well as the women he’d met at duBois. 

He took a knee and then took Monae’s other hand in his own. “You know how you go to school to learn things?”

“Yeah.”

Judd looked over his shoulder at the shop then back at Monae. “Well, today is a little like school for me. The ladies are going to teach me how to help you take care of your hair. That is, if that’s okay with you?”

Monae’s eyes searched his and when gave a quick nod, he let go of a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

“We good?”

“Mm hmm, yeah.”

“Alright then, let’s get to it.”

With that, Judd got to his feet and he and Monae walked into the shop.


End file.
